Round Rock Express Rolls Past Nashville Sounds 7-2 - AAA, Pacific Coast League

MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com - ROUND ROCK, Texas – Laynce Nix continued his recent power surge by belting two home runs for the second straight night during a 3-for-4 evening, but his efforts were not enough to help the Nashville Sounds avoid a 7-2 loss at the hands of the Round Rock Express on Sunday at The Dell Diamond.

The Nashville slugger – who accounted for half of the Sounds’ six hits on the evening – has belted five home runs in his last three games and is batting .440 (11-for-25) during his current six-game hitting streak.

With the loss, the Sounds (32-51) settled for a series split with the Express after recording wins in the first two contests.

After the second inning, only two Sounds players other than Nix reached base against Express pitching (J.R. Hopf, 7th-inning walk; Brendan Katin, 8th-inning PH double).

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Nix got the evening's scoring started when he crushed his team-leading 14th longball of the season in the top of the first inning, a two-out solo shot to right-center off Round Rock starter Chad Reineke.

Round Rock tied the contest in the third when Yordany Ramirez led off with a single against Sounds starter Chris Narveson, was sacrificed to second, and scored on an Edwin Maysonet single.

The Express grabbed a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Mark Saccomanno singled and later scored on a Ramirez sacrifice fly.

Round Rock gave itself some breathing room in the fifth with a four-run rally against Narveson keyed by a pair of home runs. J.R. Towles pushed the Express lead to 3-1 when he homered for the second straight night, belting a one-out solo shot to left for his fourth roundtripper of the season. Later in the frame, a J.R. House single and Saccomanno walk put a pair of ducks on the pond for Nick Gorneault, who slugged a two-out, three-run homer to left for his ninth tater of the year.

The Express longball barrage continued in the sixth as Ramirez greeted Sounds reliever Erasmo Ramirez with a solo shot to left, his third longball of the year.

Nix struck again in the top of the seventh when he led off with his second home run of the night, a solo shot to right-center off Reineke that reduced the deficit to 7-2.

Sounds centerfielder Tony Gwynn went 0-for-4 to bring an end to his season-best eight-game hitting streak.

Reineke (4-8) turned in a quality start to notch the victory for the Express, allowing two runs on five hits while striking out six in his seven frames of action. Nick Regilio and Ray King each tossed a scoreless relief inning to close out the Round Rock win.

Narveson (2-10) took his PCL co-leading tenth loss after surrendering six runs on eight hits over his five innings of work.

The Sounds travel to Memphis on Monday to complete their road trip with a four-game stop at AutoZone Park against the cross-state rival Memphis Redbirds.

Right-hander Richie Gardner (6-2, 4.26) is scheduled to start Monday’s 7:05 p.m. CT series opener for the Sounds. He’ll face Memphis right-hander Brad Thompson (1-1, 7.82).
 

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